I tested the GPS and Cellular model, which can continue to stream music to headphones, place calls and send text messages even when you’re away from your iPhone. This worked well, and the watch seemed to transfer over to cellular faster than last year’s model, which had a delay.
The battery life is good, too. Apple advertises 18 hours of use. I took the Apple Watch Series 4 off of the charger on Friday morning. I drove to the beach that evening and realized I’d forgotten my charger. I turned it off Saturday night and still had 16 percent left on Sunday at 3 p.m. I’d worn the Apple Watch all day each day, and even used it to track workouts and make sure I closed all of my rings. That’s good enough for me.
I like the new digital crown on the side, which is used to navigate around apps. It provides haptic feedback — a little buzz — when you twist it, and you can press it to make a selection. Also, the button below it that brings up the app tray is now more flush with the rest of the body, which is just a tiny aesthetic enhancement.
At its launch event last week, Apple showed off a new electrocardiogram feature that exists inside the digital crown, but it’s not active right now. Apple will release a software update that will enable it later this year, but when it works it’ll let you take an EKG and send it off to your doctor via PDF.
